Etymologically
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professus

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Forms

prōfessus (feminine prōfessa, neuter prōfessum); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin profiteor (“to declare openly, profess”): the perfect participle of that verb, used as an adjective with a passive sense.[1][2][3] The verb is a compound of prō- and fateor (“to admit”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Phaedrus uses it in the sense “declared, avowed”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Seneca speaks of prayers that are aperta et professa, “open and avowed”.[2] The phrase ex professō (also dē professō) meant “openly, without dissimulation”, and is found in Seneca, Quintilian, Suetonius and Apuleius.[1][2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means “professed”, of someone who has taken religious vows.[5] Medieval Latin used it as a noun for a monk who had taken his vows, and for a master who had obtained the licence to teach.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it for “declared, avowed”.[2][3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses ex professō “openly”.[1][3]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius writes of a brother who stirred up the armies paene ex professō, “almost openly”.[1][3]
  • 438 AD – The Theodosian Code has a noun professus for the profession of religion.[7][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. open, avowed, undisguised.[1][2]
  2. ex professō, dē professō: openly, avowedly, without dissimulation.[1][2][5]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) professed, having taken religious vows.[5]

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) A monk who has taken his vows.[6]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A master who has obtained the licence to teach.[6]

Usage notes

A fourth-declension noun professus (genitive professūs), “profession (of religion)”, appears once in the Theodosian Code.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften